'Grow-your-own facelift' comes at a cost

Taking out a mortgage for a new, unlined face may become commonplace with the introduction of an innovative cosmetic surgery treatment to Australia. Isolagen, a technology in which the patient's own collagen-producing cells are harvested and injected back into the face, promises to be the next big thing in the relentless pursuit of beauty. But it comes at a price.

A treatment costs $5000 to $6000 - enough to raise the eyebrows of even the most frozen-faced Botox junkie. Approved last month by the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Isolagen comes closer than Botox to promising patients eternal youth.

Already dubbed "grow-your-own facelift", it blurs the boundary between science and science fiction, borrowing techniques used in stem cell research to provide patients with a long-lasting supply of their own collagen-producing fibroblast cells.

The cells of only three patients are stored in the liquid nitrogen container of Isolagen's Asia Pacific laboratory in Sydney's Lane Cove, but marketing manager Brian Marshall is confident the trickle of interest would turn into a steady stream. He says the procedure would render treatments such as Botox obsolete.

"It's not like Botox, where your muscles are temporarily paralysed," he says. "It's more like a process of turning back time."

Mr Marshall says 300 cosmetic and plastic surgeons from Australia and New Zealand are offering Isolagen, and would be trained in injecting procedures next month. He says the advantage of Isolagen is that it involves patients being injected with their own cells, rather than a foreign body such as bovine-sourced collagen."The body accepts the cells and nourishes them, so there is no problem with rejection," he says.

He dismisses concerns raised in Britain, where Isolagen has been offered since the beginning of the year, that cells could mutate and turn cancerous over time, saying fibroblast cells were known to be stable. "They are the ideal cells to cultivate because they don't turn into anything else," he says.

ISOLAGEN HOW IT WORKS
1. A surgeon takes a 3mm skin biopsy from behind the patient?s ear. 2. Over six to eight weeks, millions of fibroblast cells are cultivated.
3. The cell samples are bar-coded and stored in liquid nitrogen. 4. The cells are injected at one to two-week intervals. 5. The cells multiply and produce new collagen, potentially improving the
appearance of the skin.

However, there are still unanswered questions about Isolagen. It has not been scientifically established how long a treatment lasts, although the effects are thought to last at least eight years. The effect of repeated treatments has also not been determined.

The first patients to have Isolagen were treated in 1995 in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration then banned it, pending the development of new regulations for cell technologies. The FDA is expected to approve Isolagen next year.

Mr Marshall says Isolagen is not likely to appeal to patients wanting a cheap, quick fix for wrinkles. But he says it is becoming increasingly common for patients to be offered financing for expensive procedures such as facelifts. In other words, people could take out a mortgage for a younger face.

Cosmetic Physicians Society of NSW president Sharron Phillipson says it remains to be seen if patients would pay the hefty price.